This invention is related to printer software installation, and more specifically to methods of downloading and installing such drivers and related utilities.
A printer (also designated a printer controller hereinafter) is usually shipped with printer drivers that allow users to print from application software. More recently, printer driver software has been commonly distributed on CD-ROM (“CD”) media. In some cases, a variety of drivers are provided on a single CD, however, that is the exception, such that different printer controllers typically require driver distributions on a different printer driver CD. The many versions of printer drivers are also updated periodically to fix bugs and improve performance, and such updates preclude installation by the original installation CD. To facilitate driver installs in larger networked environments, the printer driver CD needs to be duplicated and distributed to the users, who then install the drivers on their computers. Subsequent updates similarly require further creation of distribution CD's that will need to be duplicated and redistributed to provide the updates to the users in an expeditious manner. For those user computers that do not have a CD drive, the network administrator is required to accommodate such limitations by utilizing other forms of media distribution to ensure that all users can benefit from the updated drivers. Further, those users who had already installed a printer driver, and now require an updated driver patch, would require that the administrator install the patch.
What is needed is a less resource-intensive method for distributing printer drivers and related software in networked environments.